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Physics LibreTexts

8: Sparse Matrices

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

A sparse matrix is a matrix in which most of the entries are zero. Such matrices are very commonly encountered in finite-difference equations. For example, when we discretized the 1D Schrödinger wave equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, we saw that the Hamiltonian matrix had the tridiagonal form

Hence, if there are diagonalization points, the Hamiltonian matrix has a total of entries, but only of these entries are non-zero.


This page titled 8: Sparse Matrices is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Y. D. Chong via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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